HD 


Souchon 

Cooperation  of  Production  and 
Sale  in  French  Agriculture 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


GIFT 


Cooperation 
of  Production  and  Sale 
in  French  Agriculture 


A.   SOUCHON 

Professeur  a  la  Faculte  de  Droit  de  Paris. 


EXPOSITION    UNIVERSELLE 

DE  SAN  FRANCISCO 

1915 


Cooperation 

of  Production  and  Sale 

in  French  Agriculture 


Cooperation 
of  Production  and  Sale 
in  French  Agriculture 


A.    SOUCHON 

Professeiir   ;'i  la  I'aculte  de  Droit   dc  Pa 


EXPOSITION    UNI  V  H  R  S  K  L  1.  K 

Di^   SAN   FRANCISCO 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2007  witii  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


littp://www.arcln  ive.org/details/cooperationofproOOsouc 


IH2b 


COOPEUATIOX  OF  PUODLimOX  AND  SALE  IN 
FRENCH  A(;KICLLTLKE 

By  A.  SOUCHON 
Professeur  a.  la  Faculte  de  Droit  de  I'aris. 


INTRODUCTION 

Other  treatise  have  already  been  devoted  by 
us  wliolly  or  in  part  to  questions  of  agricul- 
tural cooperation.  When  studying  agricultural 
societies  we  showed  them  making  purchases  in 
common  for  their  members.  That  is  nothing  but 
cooperation  of  consumption  of  objects  necessary 
to  agricuUui'al  exploitation.  In  this  form  of  cooper- 
ation the  societies  have  even  obtained  a  success 
so  great  that  they  have  left  notiiing  to  be  done 
outside  tiiem  —  or  very  nearly  so.  Also,  in  a 
study  of  agricultural  cooperation,  it  is  useless  to 
reserve  a  particular  place  for  cooperative  societies 
for  consumption,  and  it  is  suflicient  here  to  refer 
the  reader  to  llie  treatise  on  agricultural  societies. 
A  passing  iiimlion  should  he  math',  however,  of 
tlie  societies  of  paniiicatioii,  real  cooperative 
bakeries.  Most  of  them  are  found  in   the  West  of 


France  and  number  more  than  five  hundred.  Cer- 
tain of  these  bakeries  have  their  own  cooperative 
mill,  but  this  is  more  the  exception.  Sometimes  in 
our  villages  there  are  also  cooperative  grocery 
stores.  But  a  study  of  them  would  lead  us  too  far 
from  veritable  agricultural  associations.  There  is, 
in  fact,  nothing  professional  in  the  purchase  of 
sugar  or  similar  ingredients. 

In  our  study  of  Credit  we  have  examined  quite 
another  form  of  cooperation,  what  is  known  as  mu- 
tual credit  being  no  otiier  than  cooperative  credit. 

And  lastly,  in  the  treatise  on  agricultural  insu- 
rance societies,  we  have  also  studied  questions  ot 
cooperation,  mutual  aid  insurance  also  being  no 
other,  when  everything  is  taken  into  account,  than 
a  sort  of  cooperation  for  protection  against  divers 
risks. 

To  avoid  repetition,  the  Held  before  us  when  we 
wish  to  speak  of  cooperation  in  French  agriculture 
necessarily  is  limited  to  what  concerns,  on  one 
hand,  cooperation  of  production  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  sale  and  transformation  of  agricultural 
produce. 


COOPERATION  IN  AGRICULTURAL 
PRODUCTION 

We  have  no  cooperation  of  cultivation  ;  nothing 
comparable   to  the  affitanze  collective  of  tlie  Ita- 


—  3  — 

lians,  nor  to  the  cooperative  villag-es  of  Australia, 
nor  to  the  numerous  communistic  attempts  made 
in  the  United  States.  To  he  exact,  it  should  he  said 
that  one  might  find  in  France  a  few  half-hearted 
attempts  at  cooperation  in  cultivation.  Mention  has 
often  heen  made  of  the  village  of  Tirman,  in 
Algeria,  but  here  we  have  a  project  rather  tiian  a 
realization.  31.  Tardy  in  his  reports  on  agricultural 
cooperation  has  also  shown  the  existence  of  a 
cooperative  farm  at  La  Faussette,  in  the  county  of 
Var.  There  are  also  in  the  South  a  few  cooperative 
wine  makers  who  have  become  joint  proprietors 
of  vineyards.  But  all  this  amounts  to  very  little 
and  constitutes  nothing  more  than  a  mere  social 
bagatelle.  It  is  not  of  sufficient  importance  to  dwell 
on  here. 

It  should  be  remarked  that  in  our  ancient  rural 
economy  cultivation  in  common  occupied  a  very 
important  place.  This  was  the  result  of  our  old 
[)easant  communities  and  particularly  of  the 
Societ^s  Taisibles,  so  called  because  they  resulted 
from  a  tacit  understanding  between  their  members 
and  no  juridical  act  preceded  their  formation.  The 
origin  of  these  peasant  communities  dates  back  to 
the  early  Middle  Ages.  They  were  very  numerous 
fln'ougbout  the  whole  of  France,  grouping  more 
than  one  family,  and  very  often  including  lil'ly  to 
two  hundred  persons  sometimes  with  no  ties  ot 
relationship.  For  the  most  part  these  communities 
worked  ground  handed  over  to  them  hv  the  nobles 


_  4  — 

on  which  to  raise  produce  to  pay  dues  to  those 
nobles.  They  were  thus  more  or  less  comparable 
to  societies  working  land  on  lease.  Sometimes, 
too,  they  were  tliemselves  owners.  The  soil  was 
worked  in  common.  All  lived  togetlier,  «  eating 
from  the  same  dishes  and  warmed  by  the  same 
hearth  ».  Similar  customs  were  maintained  so 
long  as  the  feudal  dues  bore  heavily  on  our  rural 
population  and  so  long  as  poverty  gave  a  parti- 
cular interest  to  forms  of  economy  resulting  from 
life  in  common.  Tiie  disaggregation  of  our  peasant 
communities  commenced  in  the  XVI  century.  On 
the  eve  of  the  Revolution  these  communities  had 
almost  entirely  disappeared.  In  the  XIX  century 
no  more  than  a  few  traces  remained  of  them, 
notably  in  Auvergne  and  in  the  Pyrenees.  This  is 
therefore  an  institution  which  we  must  consider  as 
belonging  entirely  to  the  past.  But  to  point  it  out 
was  useful,  first  because  it  is  chai-acteristic  of  our 
France  of  ancient  days,  and  next  because  it  shows 
us  that  cooperation  in  cultivation,  put  forward  as 
ultra-modern,  is  in  reality  only  a  new  beginning 
under  modified  aspects  of  a  very  old  institution. 

It  must  be  remarked  also  that  if  we  have  no  co- 
operative societies  doing  all  tiie  work  of  cultivation 
in  common,  certain  of  our  associations  can  have 
an  influence  on  this  work  of  cultivation,  and  some- 
times even  assume  a  part  of  it. 

It  is  thus  in  the  first  place  that  numbers  of 
societies,  in  view  only  of  the  sale  and  transforma- 


tion  of  agricultural  produce,  are  brought  to  impose 
certain  rules  of  exploitation  and  demand  their 
observance  by  their  members.  The  best  example  in 
this  is  furnished  by  the  cooperative  butter  works. 
We  shall  see  the  important  place  that  these  coopera- 
tives fill  in  the  rural  economy  of  certain  regions 
of  France  ;  and  we  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  of 
their  working  in  some  detail.  We  may  say  here 
that  tlie  societies  compel  tiieir  members  to  choose 
fodder  for  their  animals  in  a  precise  and  defined 
fashion,  and  that  they  lay  down  rules  as  to  the  way 
the  stables  should  be  kept.  In  certain  foreign  coun- 
tries, notably  in  Denmark,  greater  progress  along 
these  lines  has  been  made  than  with  us,  and  every- 
thing concerning  tiie  care  of  cattle  is  regulated 
with  minuteness  by  the  cooperative  societies  there. 
It  is  true  this  is  not  cultivative  cooperation,  but  it 
is  alreadv  nearly  approaching  it,  since  the  associa- 
tions go  so  far  as  to  exercise  autiiority  over  the 
manner  of  exploitation  of  the  soil,  of  which  cattle 
rearing  is  hut  a  special  form. 

Very  often,  too,  we  come  across  cooperative 
societies  whicii,  whilst  not  formed  with  a  view  to 
cultivation,  have  yet  another  aim  than  tlie  sale  or 
transformation  of  agricultural  produce.  Their  idea 
is  to  aid  the  work  of  cultivation  by  a  common  elfort 
although  remaining  in  its  wiiole  individual.  Tlie 
best  examples  we  can  give  liere  are  tiiose  of  coopera- 
tives for  the  use  in  common  of  agricultural  imple- 
ments, societies  for  ploughing  by  steam  or  electri- 


—  (i  — 

city,  and  cooperatives  for  cattle  rearing  and 
pasturage.  None  of  these  forms  of  association  has 
yet  reached  a  considerable  development  in  our 
country.  With  allofthem  we  are  traversing  a  period 
of  trials.  But  we  can  already  claim  encouraging 
results  of  a  nature  to  augur  well  for  the  near  fu- 
ture. 

First  as  regards  the  utilization  in  common  of 
agricultural  implements;  this  is  the  more  often 
undertaken  in  our  country  by  our  agricultural  so- 
cieties, and  special  cooperatives  for  this  are  rare. 
How^ever,  there  are  about  twenty.  Most  are  coopera- 
tive societies  for  threshing.  They  are  found  through- 
out France,  and  one  could  not  speak  of  their  loca- 
lization. There  are  also  societies  whose  object  is 
the  purchase  and  collective  utilization  of  all  kinds 
of  agricultural  machinery.  We  can  notably  cite 
that  of  Beaurepaire,  Isere,  that  of  Cheny  de  Quenne 
and  Wlllemer,  Yonne.  In  the  ordinary  way  these 
cooperatives,  after  having  purchased  tiie  machi- 
nery, place  it  at  the  disposal  of  each  of  tiieir  mem- 
bers in  turn.  There  is  thus  successive  use  much 
more  than  collective  utilization.  But  in  the  course 
of  the  last  few  years  attempts  have  been  made  to 
proceed  otherwise  by  asking  members  to  work 
together  with  the  machinery,  passing  successivelv 
ovei"  the  land  of  each.  This  brings  us  nearer  to 
cultivation  in  common.  Further,  we  have  here  a 
particularlv  tempting  procedure  in  a  country  like 
France,  where  not  onlv  are  there  manv  small  hoi- 


—  7  — 

ding-s,  but  a  number  of  allotments  parcelled  up  into 
strips  wbicli  are  not  contiguous.  Such  a  splitting-  up 
of  properties  renders  the  employment  of  machinery 
difficult,  but  this  would  be  singularly  facilitated 
the  dav  that  a  united  organization  should  permit 
of  not  stopping  at  the  limits  of  each  property. 

Societies  for  steam  ploughing-  are  only  a  v^ai'ia- 
tion  of  cooperatives  for  the  collective  utilization  of 
agricultural  implements,  but  they  present  a  parti- 
cular interest  by  reason  of  the  very  importance  of 
the  mechanism  set  in  motion  by  the  association. 
Societies  for  steam  ploughing-  were  born  at  the 
same  time  of  scarcity  of  manual  labour  and  the 
impossibility  for  each  owner  to  have  his  own  steam 
plough.  It  is  already  some  years  since  they  appeared 
in  the  region  of  Paris,  notably  in  the  Soissons  dis- 
tricts and  the  Oise.  But  in  the  beginning  these  were 
not  veritable  cooperatives,  and  we  were  rathei'  face 
to  face  with  commercial  companies  buying  a  steam 
plough  and  letting  it  out  on  hire  to  agriculturists. 
In  practice  the  shareholders  of  the  company  were 
those  who  expected  to  use  the  machinery.  Coopera- 
tion in  embrvo  thereby  alread\  appeared.  At  the 
present  lime  things  have  gone  much  further,  and 
in  the  neighljourhood  sui'rounding  Senlis  there  are 
regular  cooperatives  for  steam  ploughing.  The  dif- 
ference compared  w  ith  the  commercial  companies 
already  mentioned  is  in  the  fact  that  there  are  no 
shareholders,  and  that  no  sort  of  profit  has  to  be 
raised  from  the  cultivatois  using  the  machine  in 


—  8  — 

common.  In  regard  to  electricity,  it  is  no  loger  a 
question  of  ploughing.  This  does  not  mean  that  the 
employment  of  electric  force  for  running  agricul- 
tural machines  in  our  fields  is  unknown  to  us,  but 
the  method  is  little  used.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
are  in  our  regions  of  large  farms,  particularly 
around  Paris,  numbers  of  undertakings  possessing 
very  complicated  machinery  worked  by  electricity. 
Also,  the  creation  of  cooperatives  having  for  object 
the  procuring  of  electric  energy  for  their  members 
has  often  been  thought  of.  Attempts  are  being  made 
to  form  such  in  the  counties  of  Aube,  Aisne  and 
Eure-et-Loir.  They  are  of  too  recent  date  to  permit 
any  definite  forecast  as  to  their  success. 

There  remain  to  be  considered  catlle  rearing  and 
pasturage  in  common.  In  another  treatise  we  have 
already  spoken  of  societies  for  catlle  rearing.  They 
are  none  other  than  real  cooperative  societies  for 
a  particular  form  of  agricultural  exploitation.  They 
do  not  go  so  far  as  cultivation,  but  they  lay  down 
clearly  defmied  regulations  for  the  choice  of  repro- 
ducing animals  and  the  care  to  be  given  to  their 
young. 

Pasturage  in  common  is  frequent  in  mountainous 
districts  under  an  administrative  form,  in  this  sense 
that  a  great  number  of  communes  in  the  Alps  and 
in  the  Pyrenees  possess  widely  extended  pasture 
lands  on  which  all  the  inhabitants  can  send  their 
cattle  to  graze.  Looked  at  closely,  this  is  like  an 
association  embracing  the  whole  village,  and  the 


—  9  — 

legal  aspect  of  things  does  not  greatly  mask  the 
reality.  In  certain  mountainous  regions  wliere  the 
communes  liave  not  so  widely  entended  pasture 
lands,  notably  in  the  East  of  France  on  the  slopes 
of  the  Jura,  the  inhabitants  try  sometimes  to  re- 
medy the  absence  of  communal  pasturag:e  by  an 
effort  of  association.  They  hire  land  on  to  which  tiie 
members  have  the  right  to  send  all  tlieir  cattle 
together.  Attempts  have  even  been  made  at  common 
possession  of  tlie  animals. 


COOPERATIVE  SOCIETIES 

FOR   THE  SALE  AND  TRANSFORMATION 

OF  AGRICULTURAL  PRODUCE 

After  having  thus  treated  of  cooperatives  of  pro- 
duction, we  come  to  associations  for  the  object  of 
sale,  and  sometimes  transformation,  of  agricultural 
produce.  The  greater  part  of  these  associations  are 
of  recent  origin.  However,  associations  specializing 
in  cheese  have  existed  since  a  very  long  time  in 
the  Jura  and  liave  created  the  world-wide  reputa- 
tion of  certain  of  their  products,  notably  Gruytire. 
It  is  generally  stated  tliat  these  societies  already 
existed  in  the  XII  century.  They  were  neither 
more  nor  less  than  veritable  cooperatives  for  the 
manufacture  of  cheese.  Each  of  the  members 
brought  his  siiarc  of  milk,  the  clieese  was  made  by 
the  society,  and  the  produce  was  shared  among  all 


—  10  — 

according-  to  different  rules  and  pro  rata  to  the 
quantities  of  milk  supplied  by  each. 

Numbers  of  these  societies  exist  to  this  day,  but 
no  longer  Avith  the  same  characteristics.  A  sort  of 
regression  has  taken  place  in  their  cooperative 
practice.  They  are  are  now  nothing  but  conmiercial 
companies  working  for  peasants  who  bring  milk 
to  them,  but  claiming  from  them  a  large  profit, 
like  any  ordinary  intermediaries.  But  this  does 
not  mean  that  there  is  no  more  cooperation.  It 
subsists  in  the  fact  that  the  producers  of  the  milk 
untite  to  bring  quantities  of  milk  in  common  to  the 
companies.  We  shall  come  across  these  associa- 
tions again  when  speaking  of  the  present  develop- 
ment of  cooperatives  for  the  sale  and  transformation 
of  agricultural  produce. 

In  studying-  this  development  we  should  remark 
that  cooperative  associations  of  sale  and  transfor- 
mation most  numerous  in  our  country  are  found 
precisely  in  milk,  butter  and  cheese  regions.  After 
these,  it  is  among  societies  of  vinification,  or  «  co- 
operatives cellars  »,  that  we  find  the  most  important 
groups.  There  are  also  other  very  diverse  coopera- 
tives of  which  we  should  speak. 

First  as  regards  the  milk  industry,  we  lind  our- 
selves in  face  of  associations  having  for  object  the 
sale  of  milk  without  any  transformation,  neither 
into  butter  nor  cheese.  There  are  countries  where 
such  associations  have  played  a  considerable  role. 
We  know  the  history  of  the  milk  wars  around  cer- 


—  11  — 

tain  larj^e  German  towns,  particularly  Berlin  and 
Municli.  These  milk  wars  were  provoked  by  the 
coalitions  of  peasants  of  the  surrounding  neigh- 
bourhood trying  to  create  together  a  monopoly  on 
I  lie  urban  market,  and  making  the  consumer  pay 
high  prices,  thanks  to  the  power  of  this  monopoly. 
Sucii  combinations  came  up  against  the  resistance 
of  free  commerce.  They  were  always  worsted  and 
broken  up.  In  France  we  have  never  experienced 
these  milk  «  kartells  ».  But  during  these  last  years 
a  few  cooperative  societies  have  been  formed  for 
the  sale  of  milk  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Paris,  par- 
ticularly in  the  Oise.  Their  aim  was  to  rescue  the 
small  producers  from  the  domination  of  very  strongly 
organized  commercial  companies  wiiich  bought  the 
milk  very  cheap  of  the  peasants  to  sell  it  in  the  capi- 
tal at  very  high  profits.  Naturally  these  coopera- 
tive societies  for  tiie  sale  of  milk  have  had  to  struggle 
against  the  hostility  of  the  companies  from  whose 
power  they  wished  to  free  the  cultivators.  Never- 
theless tliey  have  succeeded,  and  the  (juantity  of 
milk  that  they  sell  in  Paris  is  estimated  at  about 
three  million  litres  (5,2.')0,000  pints)  a  year.  This 
is  ^ill  very  little  compared  wilh  the  total  consump- 
tion. It  does  not  seem  either  that  here  the  coopera- 
tive has  procured  great  profits  for  its  adherents. 
Its  working  expenses  are  considerable,  and,  taking 
everything  in  to  account,  the  producers  make  almost 
as  much  by  working  through  I  he  inlermediary  of 
the  commercial  companies. 


12 


A  few  cooperatives  for  the  sale  of  milk  have  also 
heen  formed  in  the  South  of  France  to  supply 
Nice  and  Monaco.  There  again  we  have,  it  seems, 
to   record   a  success    without  verv   erreat   advan- 


fD' 


tages. 

Next  come  the  cooperatives  for  the  making  of 
cheese.  We  have  already  said  how  ancient  they 
are  in  certain  regions  of  France.  We  know  also 
that  they  have  remained  numerous.  There  are  at 
present  ahout  two  thousand  of  them.  Most  are 
found  in  the  Jura,  while  many  others  are  in  Ain 
and  even  in  Savoy.  These  small  associations  do 
not  exist  isolated  one  from  another ;  and  larger 
societies  of  cheese  makers  group  together  those  of  a 
same  district.  We  would  notahly  cite  the  Syndicat  de 
Gers,  that  of  Saint-Julien  (Haute-Savoie)  and  of 
Annecy,  which  tends  to  become  a  sort  of  general 
society  of  all  the  cheese  makers  of  the  South-East. 
Such  groups  can  have  a  very  beneficial  influence. 
We  have  already  said  that  in  the  cheese  industry  there 
is  a  sort  of  regression  in  cooperative  practice.  The 
societies  can  try  to  bring  it  back  towards  the  most 
complete  type  of  association,  which  is  that  of  the  past. 
This  would  be  very  desirable  for  the  producers,  for 
when,  in  fact,  they  sell  their  milk  to  cheese  making 
concerns  working  for  their  own  account,  all  kinds 
of  manoeuvres  and  understandings  to  bring  down 
the  price  of  milk  are  to  be  feared.  Nothing  of  the 
sort  would  liave  to  be  feared  if,  conforming  to  old 
traditions,  the  cheese  making  institutions  worked 


for  the  peasants  without  making  a  profit  out  of 
them.  It  is  more  interesting'  to  examine  the  butter 
works.  We  know  how  cooperatives  of  this  sort 
have  multiplied  in  numbers  of  countries  and  what 
an  important  position  they  occupy,  notably  in 
Danish  agriculture.  Their  success  is  due  above 
all  to  a  cause  of  a  technical  order,  viz.,  the  inven- 
tion of  centrifugal  machines.  These  machines  are 
too  large  to  allow  of  each  small  cultivator  possess- 
ing his  own.  It  was  therefore  necessary  for  these 
small  owners  either  to  renounce  technical  progress 
or  unite  together  to  obtain  apparatus  in  common. 
In  our  country  the  first  butter  cooperatives  appear- 
ed about  1890.  This  was  in  the  West,  and  parti- 
cularly in  tiie  Gharentes  and  Poitou.  These  coun- 
ties were  suffering  from  an  agricultural  crisis  of  a 
particular  nature.  Our  Charentais  districts,  cele- 
brated for  their  spirits,  owed  their  prosperity  for  a 
long  time  to  the  vine.  When  the  epidemic  of  phyl- 
loxera appeared  it  looked  as  if  their  future  was  for 
ever  compromised.  Our  Languedoc,  it  is  true,  was 
about  to  show  that  this  scourge  could  be  fought 
against  by  Amei'ican  roots.  Jiut  in  the  South  the 
reconstitution  of  the  vines  was  most  often  made 
with  many  clianges  in  the  vin^^yard  grounds.  In  a 
general  way,  the  vine  has  tended  to  descend  from 
the  dry  and  stony  hill-sides  towards  the  damp 
plains.  The  wine  has  gained  in  quantity,  but  it  is 
another  (|uestion  as  regards  the  (|uality.  The  con- 
ditions of  tlie   soil  in  tlie  Gharentes  did  not  lend 


—  14  — 

themselves  to  such  changes,  and  the  owners  in  the 
majority  of  cases  gave- up  vine  growing-  altogether 
and  turned  their  entire  attention  to  milk  producing-. 
But  it  was  necessary  to  ensure  the  best  chances  oi 
success,  and  to  attain  this  end  the  first  butter 
cooperatives  were  created.  They  made  their  appea- 
rance in  Saintonge.  From  there  they  rapidly  spread 
to  all  the  neighbouring  districts.  Today  we  can 
count  12o  in  the  West  of  France.  They  have  united 
in  a  central  association  whose  action  extends  over 
the  counties  of  Charente-Inferieure,  Deux-Sevres, 
Gharente,  Vendee,  Vienne,  Indre,  Indre-et-Loire 
and  Loire-Inferieure. 

Most  of  the  members  are  very  small  landlords. 
But  they  have  become  rich  in  an  extraordinary 
fashion,  thanks  to  the  success  of  the  cooperatives, 
which  find  in  the  Paris  markets  a  fine  outlet,  their 
produce  being  much  sought  after  there.  It  has  been 
calculated  that  the  action  of  the  cooperatives  has 
at  least  doubled  the  productive  money  value  of  each 
milch-cow  to  the  profit  of  its  owner. 

The  mechanism  of  the  dairy  cooperatives  is  very 
simple.  They  first  have  to  make  an  elfort  to  brings 
together  a  sufficient  number  of  owners  to  be  able 
to  utilize  centrifuge  machinery.  Next  they  must 
possess  the  necessary  capital  to  acquire  the  ma- 
chines. To  obtain  them  the  cooperative  may  make 
an  appeal  to  its  members.  It  can  also  borrow,  and 
this  borrowing  is  facilitated  by  the  law  of  December 
29th,  1906,  of  which  we  have  already  spoken   in 


—  15  — 

the  treatise  on  credit.  When  it  has  been  possible 
to  form  the  cooperative  dairy  in  its  personal  and 
material  elements,  there  remains  its  daily  working; 
to  be  ensured.  The  first  rule  is  that  all  the  mem- 
bers should  bring  all  their  milk  to  the  cooperative. 
What  is  necessary  for  their  own  consumption  and 
that  of  their  families  is,  liowever,  left  for  them. 
Sometimes  all  the  milk  of  Sunday  is  left  to  them, 
the  centrifuge  machines  not  working-  on  that  day. 
Particular  precautions  are  taken  so  that  the  share 
brought  by  each  meml)er  shall  be  conveyed  under 
the  best  condilions.  It  is  forbidden,  for  example, 
to  supply  milk  from  a  sick  cow  or  from  one  having 
calved  since  less  than  a  week.  Very  strict  pre- 
scriptions are  also  enforced  relative  to  the  purity  of 
the  milk  and  the  cleanliness  of  the  receptacles. 
Butter  is  sold  by  tiie  agents  of  the  cooperative,  and 
the  sale  price,  after  deduction  of  costs,  is  shared 
pro  rata  to  the  quantities  of  milk  brought  by  each 
member.  It  is  not  only  a  question  of  proportion  as 
to  quantity.  The  quality  is  also  taken  int-o  account, 
which  can  be  appreciated  in  an  exact  manner, 
thanks  to  apparatus  for  measuring  tlie  richness  of 
the  milk  in  cream. 

There  remains  a  delicate  question,  viz.,  that  of 
butter-milk.  For  its  better  employment  numbers 
of  cooperatives  create  pigstys.  This  generally  is  a 
source  of  serious  profit ;  but  complications  in  admi- 
nistration may  become  fairly  numerous.  In  order 
to  avoid  tliem  some  coopeiatives,  after  having  con- 


—  11)  — 

structed  a  pig:sty,  let  it  out  on  condition  that  the 
holder  shall  take  all  their  butter-milk.  Other  soci- 
ties  merely  give  back  the  butter-milk  to  their 
members. 

There  are  cooperative  dairies  not  only  in  Glia- 
rante  and  Poitou.  A  fair  number  are  also  found  in 
Thierache,  a  district  situated  in  the  county  of  Aisne. 
There  are  there  about  thirty  of  these  cooperatives. 
Like  the  societies  of  the  West,  they  have  their 
federation.  Since  the  last  few  years  butter  coopera- 
tives have  appeared  also  in  Normandy  and  even 
in  Brittany,  where  they  have,  it  would  seem,  a 
great  future  before  them. 

These  associations  of  diverse  regions  are  about 
of  the  same  type  as  those  of  the  Charentes  and 
Poitou.  There  are  sometimes  differences  in  the 
juridical  structure.  Thus,  for  example,  the  coopera- 
tives of  the  West  ordinarily  take  on  a  civil  form. 
On  the  contrary,  those  of  Thierache  take  on  more 
a  commercial  form.  We  could  not,  however,  go 
further  into  precisions  without  entering  on  ques- 
tions of  the  laws  of  our  land  which  would  take  us 
too  far  from  the  subject  under  examination. 

After  the  dairies  and  butter  works,  it  is  among 
cellar  cooperatives  that  we  find  the  most  important 
group  of  associations  in  view  of  the  sale  or  trans- 
formation of  agricultural  produce.  The  cause  of  the 
cooperative  movement  is  here  of  the  same  order 
as  for  the  dairies,  and  must  be  looked  for  on  the 
technical  side.  The  expenses  of  the  wine  vault  vvith 


—  17  — 

all  its  machinery  are  today  too  great  for  small  pro- 
prietors, and  numbers  among  them  are  brought  to 
group  themselves  together  in  spite  of  many  indivi- 
dual dissensions. 

.  In  cooperative  cellars  wine  is  made  in  common. 
Similar  associations  are  found  today  in  all  our 
great  vinicultural  regions.  The  oldest  of  these 
associations  appears  to  be  that  of  Damery,  in 
Champagne,  which  was  founded  about  1890.  Its 
history  is  bound  up  with  a  whole  movement  of  the 
vine-growers  against  the  great  outside  commerce. 
This  history  was  very  varied  and  terminated  in  a 
check.  But  it  must  not  l)e  concluded  from  that 
that  the  idea  of  cooperation  has  been  abandoned  in 
our  wine-growing  districts  of  Champagne.  At  the 
present  moment  we  find,  on  the  contrary,  a  whole 
growth  of  associations  for  wine  producing  in  the 
Marne.  These  are  societies  wilii  a  small  number 
of  members,  without  great  forces  of  capital,  and 
whose  role  in  consequence  is  very  limited,  but  thev 
have  nearly  ail  an  especially  catholic  character. 
There  are  also  a  few  wine  making  cooperatives  in 
Bourgogne,  in  Indre-et-Loire,  in  tiie  Jura,  and 
even  in  the  Puy-de-D6me.  It  is  especially  to  Lan- 
guedoc,  however,  that  we  have  to  look  for  the  dis- 
trict par  excellence  of  cooperative  cellars.  There 
are  about  thirty  in  the  counties  of  Herault,  Card, 
Bouches-du-Rii6ne,  Varand  Aude.  Certain  of  these 
associations  are  celebrated,  notably  that  of  the 
Free  Viniculturists  of  Maraussan,  M»''rault,  This 
II.  2 


—  18  — 

society  was  founded  in  1902,  and  lias  strongly 
Socialist  tendencies.  But  outside  its  propaganda  in 
the  domaine  of  ideas,  its  economic  action  is  impor- 
tant. The  members  number  more  than  300,  it  sells 
over  a  million  francs  worth  of  wine  per  annum, 
and  its  cooperative  character  is  particularly  marked, 
since  the  work  of  the  association  extends,  as  we 
have  already  seen,  even  to  the  cultivation  of  the 
vine. 

The  wine  making  cooperatives  are  very  far  from 
being  all  modelled  on  the  same  plan,  but  there  is 
a  type  which  can  be  considered  as  the  most 
general. 

As  for  dairy  cooperatives,  the  association  begins 
to  work  after  the  uniting  together  of  a  sufficient 
number  of  members,  and  when,  thanks  either  to 
the  sums  they  subscribe  or  to  loans  raised,  a 
fairly  large  capital  is  ensured.  Each  member  has 
to  look  after  gathering  in  his  grapes  and  the 
bringing  of  them  to  the  cooperative  cellar.  Their 
grapes,  further,  are  only  accepted  if  they  appear 
of  sufficiently  good  quality  not  to  compromise  the 
wine  making  of  the  concern.  This  quality  is,  like 
the  quantity,  mentioned  with  care  on  the  receipt 
handed  to  the  member,  which  constitutes  his  credit 
voucher  against  the  cooperative.  It  is  then  the 
business  of  the  cooperative,  not  only  to  proceed 
with  the  processes  of  making  the  wine,  but  also 
to  sell  it  under  the  conditions  which  it  shall  judge 
best.   The  price  obtained  by  sale   is   next  shared 


—  19  — 

pro  rata  to  the  grapes  supplied  by  eacli  member, 
after  deduction  of  the  expenses  incurred.  Generally 
the  cooperative  cellars  arrange  to  pay  at  least  part 
on  account  to  their  members  before  having  received 
payment  for  the  sale.  To  this  end  all  sorts  of  com- 
binations for  obtaining  credit  from  the  3Iutual  Aid 
Societies  have  been  thought  of. 

The  advantages  of  cooperation  in  wine  making 
are  considerable.  First  of  all,  the  wine  is  better 
than  if  made  by  each  separate  grower,  who  very 
likely  might  not  have  sufficient  utensils.  Next,  the 
cooperative  character  is  particularly  reassuring  for 
customers.  They  willingly  go  to  associations,  from 
whom  they  fear  no  fraud.  There  is  in  that  such  a 
good  element  of  advertisement  that  numbers  of 
owners  and  merchants  try  to  pass  themselves  off 
surreptitiously  as  the  representatives  of  a  coopera- 
tive society.  Lastly,  thanks  to  cooperation,  vini- 
culturists  are  not  obliged  to  sell  at  unfavourable 
moments  and  under  conditions  perhaps  disastrous. 

Also,  it  is  astonishing  that  vinicultural  coopera- 
tion is  not  more  developed  in  a  countrv  like  ours. 
It  is  much  more  advanced  in  certain  other  countries, 
notably  in  the  valley  of  the  Aar,  where  it  has  ren- 
dered inappreciable  services. 

In  the  course  of  the  last  few  years  our  vinicultu- 
rists  have  greatly  suffered.  They  have  experienced 
a  crisis  of  bad  sales  of  such  intensity  that  it  was  to 
be  wondered  if  the  cultivation  of  the  vine  would 
remain  possible.  Today  prices  have  gone  up.  For 


—  20  — 

how  long  will  this  last?  None  can  predict.  But 
good  fortune  soon  makes  our  southern  population 
forget  the  resolutions  of  liard  times.  Then,  all  the 
means  capable  of  circumventing  these  bad  sales 
were  sought,  and  it  looked  as  if  the  viniculturists 
were  ready  to  listen  to  the  economists  preaching- 
cooperation.  It  is  to  be  feared,  however,  that  their 
lessons  will  not  be  remembered  so  long  as  the 
pinch  of  misfortune  does  not  come  again. 

After  the  dairy  cooperatives  and  the  cellar  coope- 
ratives, there  are  other  associations  that  we  must 
speak  of  exercising  their  activity  in  the  sale  and 
transformation  of  a  great  number  of  diverse  pro- 
ducts. 

Mention  should  first  be  made  of  the  potato  co- 
operatives. Itis  in  the  county  of  the  Vosges  that  we 
have  to  look  for  them,  where  they  number  about 
thirty.  The  first  appeared  in  1902  and  1903.  They 
were  born  of  a  reaction  of  the  agriculturists  against 
commercial  concerns  paying  a  quite  insufficient 
price  for  the  potatoes  to  be  used  for  making  potato 
flour.  Numbers  of  these  associations  were  conceiv- 
ed on  a  somewhat  special  type,  in  the  sense  that 
the  right  of  each  member  to  bring  potatoes  to  the 
cooperative  is  measured  by  the  importance  of  his 
subscription  to  the  capital  of  the  society.  A  sub- 
scription of  one  hundred  francs  (twenty  dollars), 
for  example,  allows  the  member  to  bring  three 
thousand  kilogrammes  (6616.5  lbs)  to  the  coopera- 
tive .  The  combination  is  ingenious,  and  is,  in  fact. 


—  n  — 

of  a  nature  easily  to  ensure  the  constitution  of  the 
capital  of  a  society.  It  is  very  advantageous  for 
the  cultivators  to  deliver  their  potatoes  to  the  co- 
operative instead  of  selling  them  to  commercial 
concerns.  The  realization  hy  the  members,  thanks 
to  these  cooperatives,  of  a  profit  of  100  per  cent  has 
often  been  spoken  of.  It  must  be  noted,  too,  that 
the  advantage  is  not  only  for  those  united  by  co- 
operation. All  the  cultivators  of  the  district  benefit 
by  an  effort  whose  result  is  to  raise  the  price  of 
potatoes  all  round. 

In  the  Vosges  there  is  a  Union  of  the  Coopera- 
tive Potato  Flour  Societies,  and  this  union  lias  done 
much  to  increase  the  number  of  local  associations. 
Some  attemps  have  been  made,  and  some  succes- 
ses of  the  same  order  achieve4,  in  other  regions 
of  France.  But  it  is  a  matter  for  wonder  that  the 
example  of  the  Vosges  has  not  been  more  fol- 
lowed. 

Other  associations  equally  susceptible  of  render- 
ing important  services  are  the  cooperative  oil 
works.  The  movement  which  created  them  was 
born  of  tecimical  necessities  which  came  into  being 
with  the  perfecting  of  oil  mills.  This  movement 
dates  from  about  1905.  By  the  nature  of  things  it  is 
localized  to  the  districts  bordering  the  Mediterra- 
nean, the  only  region  in  France  producing  olives. 
There  are  about  twenty  cooperative  olive  oil 
works  spread  throughout  tlie  counties  of  Alpes- 
Maritimes,  Var,  and  Bouciies-du-Rhone.    The  re- 


^2  

suits  obtained  appear  to  have  been  considerable. 
Tt  may  be  estimated  without  exaggeration  that, 
thanlvs  to  the  cooperatives,  the  owners  of  olive 
trees  have  succeeded  in  increasing  their  revenue 
by  25  to  30  per  cent. 

When  next  we  speak  of  fruit,  vegetables  and 
flowers,  we  must  first  remember  that  for  these 
products  the  societies  in  more  than  one  instance 
make  their  sales  direct  in  common,  without  having 
recourse  to  the  creation  of  a  cooperative  society. 
There  are,  however,  some  of  these  cooperatives, 
notably  in  the  counties  of  tiie  South,  either  for  the 
making  up  of  preserves  of  fruit  and  vegetables  or 
for  flowers,  as  for  example  at  Vallauris,  where 
there  is  a  cooperative  distillery  for  making  essence 
of  orange  blossom. 

We  must  also  mention  a  few  cooperative  mills, 
some  distilleries,  and  cooperatives  for  resin.  The 
cooperative  mills  are  few  in  number,  at  least  if 
we  wish  to  speak  of  those  not  forming  part  of  a 
cooperative  bakery.  There  are  no  more  than  three 
or  four  in  the  whole  of  France.  Of  the  distilleries 
there  are  about  a  dozen,  most  of  them  in  the  South 
and  a  few  in  the  district  of  the  Charentes  or  in 
Normandy.  As  to  the  resin  cooperatives,  we  can- 
not look  for  these  elsewhere  than  in  the  Landes,  the 
only  ones  in  our  country  giving  a  considerable 
place  to  the  exploitation  of  maritime  pines.  It  was 
believed  for  a  time  at  the  end  of  the  XIX  century 
that   in  tliis   region  of  the  Landes  the  cooperative 


-VA 


movement  was  going  to  take  on  considerable  pro- 
portions, and  its  development  would  have  been  of 
a  nature  to  att»uiuate  the  great  difficulties  which 
have  arisen  since  the  last  three  years  between  the 
resin  workers  and  their  employers.  But  these 
resin  workers  for  the  most  part  are  not  in  a  posi- 
tion to  be  sufficiently  wide-awake  members  of  a 
cooperative  association. 

In  the  preceding  enumeration  we  certainly  have 
not  exhausted  the  whole  Hst  of  our  coopera- 
tive societies  for  the  sale  and  transformation  of 
agricultural  produce,  and  we  have  had  to  conhne 
ourselves  to  speaking  of  the  most  important  forms, 
neglecting  those  types  represented  only  by  one  or 
two  associations.  Thus  in  the  Yosges,  at  Epinal, 
we  have  a  mining  cooperative,  at  Rillieux,  in  Aiii, 
a  sauerkraut  cooperative,  and  at  IMarigny,  in 
Seine-et-()ise,  an  association  for  the  manufacture 
of  sugar,  not  the  only  one,  but  the  others  seem 
to  liave  had  nmch  less  success. 

When  after  such  an  inventory  we  seek  to  kno\v 
what  the  total  hgure  of  our  cooperative  associa- 
tions of  agricultural  produce  may  be,  this  ligure 
appears  diflicult  to  lix.  There  are  no  official  sta- 
tistics to  go  by.  We  should  commit  a  grave  error 
if  we  based  our  calculations  on  the  publications  of 
the  service  of  Agricultural  (h'edit.  In  them  it  is 
only  a  question  of  the  cooperative  societies  having 
made  appeal  for  long  term  credit  loans,  sucli  as 
we  know  them  allowed  for  bv  the  law  of   l'.)Ub. 


—  -24  — 

Bid  there  are  numbers  of  societies  whicli  have  been 
lounded  and  are  in  full  swing  without  having  had 
recourse  to  such  loans. 

It  is  not  impossible  to  give  an  approximate 
total,  and  we  must  be  near  the  truth  when  we 
speak  for  all  France  of  2,300  to  2,400  cooperative 
associations  devoted  to  the  sale  of  agricultural  pro- 
duce or  its  transformation.  It  is  to  be  noted,  fur- 
ther, that  this  total  is  obtained  thanks  only  to  the 
very  great  number  of  cheese  making  cooperatives, 
which  amount  to  nearly  2,000.  We  would  add 
that  all  these  cooperative  societies  do  not  exist 
isolated  one  from  another.  There  are  in  the  first 
place  often  special  federations.  We  have  already 
come  across  those  connected  with  dairy  coopera- 
tives in  the  Charentes  and  Poitou,  those  also  ol 
Thierache,  and  then  for  potato  Hour  works  that  of 
the  Vosges. 

Further,  there  is  in  France  since  a  few  years  a 
Federation  Nationale  des  Societes  Cooperatives 
Agricoles.  This  federation,  as  its  name  implies, 
has  great  ambitions,  and  hopes  one  day  to  unite 
all  the  societies  of  agricultural  production,  what- 
ever their  specialization  may  be.  The  Federation 
Nationale  is  of  recent  origin.  It  is  not  therefore 
surprising  to  see  that  it  has  not  yet  attained  its 
end.  It  numbers  hardly  more  than  200  societies, 
of  which  one  group  is  composed  of  about  a  hundred 
dairy  societies  of  Poitou. 

The  results  which  we  liave  just  indicated,  when 


—  25  — 

we  remember  the  number  of  our  agricultural  socie- 
ties and  credit  associations,  as  \\  ell  as  agricultural 
mutual  aid  insurance  funds,  can  appear  relatively 
little  important. 

A  comparison  with  other  countries  is  no  more 
favourable  to  our  land  as  regards  agricultural  co- 
operation. Without  speaking  of  Denmark,  whose 
marvellous  cooperatives  are  well  known  to  all, 
we  are  equally  rather  fai-  behind  Germany.  Espe- 
cially in  the  East,  Germany  has  been  able  to  mul- 
tiply the  dairy  and  butter  works  more  than  we  have. 
Also,  Germany  has  experimented  with  types  of  agri- 
cultural cooperatives  almost  unknown  in  France. 
The  «  Korniiaiiser  »,  notably,  have  no  equivalent 
in  our  country.  There  were,  however,  moments  at 
the  end  of  the  XIX  century  and  at  the  beginning 
of  the  XX  century  when  Germany  appeared  to 
found  great  hopes  on  the  cooperative  sale  of  wheat, 
and  when  that  country  even  seemed  to  beheve  that 
it  would  be  an  excellent  remedy  against  bad  sales 
of  cereals.  Today  these  souvenirs  seem  a  long  way 
off.  The  «  Kornhaiiser  »  no  longer  have  the  same 
vogue.  Numbers  of  them  did  not  succeed.  Com- 
merce in  wheat  carries  with  it  elements  of  specu- 
lation which  render  it  perilous,  and  severe  lessons 
have  brought  this  fact  home  to  more  than  one 
director  of  a  cooperative  store.  And  again,  and 
this  is  important,  bad  times  are  past.  In  Germany, 
as  in  France,  cereals  have  during  the  last  few 
years  been  easily  sold  at  remunerative  prices.  Tjie 


—  :J6  — 

attempts  at  cooperation  were  prompted  by  the 
fall  in  prices.  It  was  difficult  for  these  attempts 
to  survive  the  rise.  Nevertheless,  we  siiould 
remember  that  they  constituted  very  interesting 
efforts  that  we  have  hardly  been  able  to  imitate. 
About  the  year  19(10  there  had  been  attempts  to 
create  a  few  cooperatives  for  the  sale  of  wheat  in 
France.  One  such  attempt  was  made  at  Roche- 
sur-Yon  and  another  at  Bayeulle.  Their  success 
does  not  appear  to  have  been  great. 

What  is  the  reason  for  these  mediocre  results  in 
our  countrv  ? 

It  has  often  been  put  down  to  incompleteness  in 
our  legislation.  This  reproach  seems  to  us  exagg-er- 
ated.  It  is  true  tiiat,  diffei-ent  to  many  other  coun- 
tries, we  have  no  special  law  for  regulating  the 
statutes  of  cooperative  societies  ;  and  this  is  a  gap 
which  it  has  been  promised  by  our  legislative  sys- 
tem shall  be  filled.  But  its  importance  must  not 
be  exag-gerated.  Our  common  law  on  Societies, 
with  the  Civil  Code  on  one  side  and  on  the  other 
the  law  of  1867  on  commercial  companies,  is 
supple  enough  to  permit  of  multiple  combinations. 
Thus  by  divers  means  situations  and  needs  which 
are  not  all  the  same  can  be  met.  Is  it  certain  that 
one  would  succeed  in  doing  this  so  well  after  the 
passing  of  a  law  governing  all  cooperative  societies 
with  perhaps  too  much  uniformity?  Again,  it  must 
not  be  forgotten  how  the  State  has  done  better  than 
make  a  law  on  their  form.  It  has  aided  agricultu- 


ral  cooperative  societies  with  pecuniary  help,  and 
the  law  of  December  29th,  1906,  with  its  long 
term  credit  at  very  low  interest,  is  nothing  less 
than  subvention,  a  little  indirect  but  very  effective. 
It  is  not  then  in  negligence  on  the  part  of  the  State 
that  reasons  must  be  sought  ioi'  tlie  small  devel- 
opment of  oui"  agricultural  cooperatives.  Neither 
is  it  in  tlie  pretended  individualism  of  our  peasant 
ry.  This  individualism  lias  been  so  much  and  for 
so  long  talked  about  that  it  reappears  every  time 
that  in  matters  of  agricultural  association  there 
is  any  inertia  to  be  regretted.  But  if  the  peasants 
of  France  were,  as  is  believed,  so  hostile  to  group- 
ing themselves  together  we  should  have  neither 
our  thousands  of  societies  nor  our  agricultural 
insurance  associations,  nor  our  credit  funds.  We 
must  therefore  seek  elsewhere,  asking  why,  on 
the  one  hand,  there  are  less  cooperatives  than  other 
agricultural  associations,  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
what  are  the  causes  of  our  insufficiency  relatively 
to  foreign  countries. 

It  is  easy  to  reply  to  the  (Irsl  of  these  two  ques- 
tions. We  understand  readily  that  cooperation  of 
production  and  of  sale  is  more  difficult  to  carry 
on  than  any  otiier  form  of  association.  It  is  the 
only  one,  in  fact,  entailing  commerce  with  the 
outer  world  whicli  has  to  be  undertaken  with  all 
the  activity,  ability  and  boldness,  as  well  as  with 
all  tlu!  prudence,  which  the  word  implies.  When 
an  individual  has  capacities  foi'  conducting  commer- 


—  ^28  — 

cial  affairs,  it  would  be  singular  if  his  ambition 
sliould  be  only  to  manage  a  cooperative  and  put 
his  capabilities  at  tiie  service  of  others,  almost 
without  profit  of  any  sort  for  himself.  It  is  easy  to 
(ind  directors  of  societies,  seduced  by  the  impor- 
tance of  the  role  they  are  called  upon  to  fdl. 
Nothing  is  more  simple  than  tlie  working  of  a  small 
credit  fund  or  mutual  aid  insurance  organization. 
Many  men  can  consecrate  their  efforts  to  it  without 
neglecting  anything  of  their  own  affairs.  For  a  sale 
cooperative  organization  it  is  quite  otherwise.  It 
is  therefore  to  be  feared  that  the  best  do  not  wish 
to  devote  themselves  to  it  and  that  the  otliers  have 
not  the  capacities  necessary  to  do  so.  There  are 
also  difficulties  of  another  order.  These  arise  from 
the  fact  that  among  all  these  agricultural  associa- 
tions the  cooperatives  for  sale  alone  try  to  group 
together  interests  among  wdiich  there  is  natural 
opposition.  Agriculturists  who  insure  together  or 
those  who  unite  their  forces  of  credit  are  competi- 
tors neither  in  insurance  nor  in  credit.  But  culti- 
vators who  sell  their  produce  are  all  competitiors 
of  each  other  in  this  work  of  sale.  In  association 
they  must  be  made  to  forget  this,  which  is  not 
always  easy.  When  the  cooperative  sells  for  all, 
each  thinks  that  he  could  have  sold  better  on  his 
own  account,  or,  when  tiie  association  fixes  the 
value  of  the  produce  brought  to  it  for  sale  in  com- 
mon, each  member  makes  his  own  private  estima- 
tion of  value,  and  finds  his  neighbour  more  favor- 


—  -29  — 

ed  than  he.  It  is  in  vain  that]  attempts  will  he 
made  to  avoid  recriminations  of  this  kind.  They 
are  in  the  nature  of  things,  exemphfying  even  in 
association  a  certain  competition  that  no  artifice 
can  eradicate. 

It  is  more  difficult  to  seelv  the  reason  why  we 
have  not  obtained  the  same  resuUs  as  other  coun- 
tries. To  do  this  we  shouhl  have  to  make  a  com- 
parison with  each  of  them,  wliich  woukl  take  us 
loo  far  from  our  subject,  so  sve  will  only  submit 
a  general  remark  :  that  is,  that  we  started  relative- 
ly too  late.  We  had  notliing  done,  whereas 
elsewhere  the  movement  was  in  some  cases  very 
advanced.  Also,  it  began  in  our  country  almost  at 
the  end  of  the  crisis  of  hard  times  and  when  the 
general  satisfaction  at  the  rise  in  prices  was  of  a 
nature  to  diminish  the  energy  and  arrest  the 
ardour  of  many. 

Taking  everything  into  account,  nothing  prevents 
us  believing  that  we  can  make  up  for  lost  time,  and 
possess  in  a  few  years  a  whole  harvest  of  agricul- 
tural cooperatives  comparable  in  importance  to 
our  agricultural  insurance  societies  and  our  mutual 
credit  associations. 


EVREUX,    IMP.     CH.     HERISSEY 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


Form  L9-50m-4,'61(B899484)444 


THE   LliJKAKl 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


1 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


Ljaulord         . 

PAMPHLET  mga 

ZZ^   Syrocwt*.  N.  Y. 


I 


PLEA*^?:  DO   NOT    REMOVE 
THIS   BOOK  CARDaa 


^lLlBR;^:!iY% 


University  Research  Library 


000  186  683    9 


2 


